Extras (TV series)

Extras (2005 - 2007) is a sitcom written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. It concerns Andy Millman, a struggling actor forced into accepting dialogue-free roles as extras in various film and television productions, and his efforts to attempt to break into the big-time by hobnobbing with the more famous stars he works with.

Ben Stiller: A lot of you might be thinking, 'Why am I making this movie?' Sure, you guys look at me as one of the world's most successful comedy actors … what does that mean? I mean, yeah, I make Along Came Polly, it opens to $32 million, one of the biggest Martin Luther King, Jr. birthday holiday opening weekends ever, goes on to gross 170 million worldwide. Meet the Parents, double that. But what does the money and the success mean in real terms? If I find a little orphan child in a warzone, hiding in a burnt out building. His parents, murdered. Persecuted for his race, his religion. What am I gonna do? Pop on Dodgeball on DVD?

Goran: Is funny film.

Ben Stiller: Thanks, and I can put on Dodgeball, and he's gonna laugh for an hour and 32 minutes, you know, escape reality for a while, but what happens when the film finishes? Back to reality. Still an orphan. Still living with fear. How do I help him? Put on Dodgeball again? Sure, he's gonna laugh again. He'll see things he didn't see the first time, it's layered, it was made like that. But, this can't go on indefinitely. All right, at a certain point, you know, after the fifth, sixth, seventh viewing, he's … still laughing, but it's not getting to the root of the problem. OK? How do I help him?

Andy: [quietly, to Maggie] Make Dodgeball 2?

[After Andy has spoken to Ben Stiller out of turn]

Ben Stiller: Who are you?

Andy: Nobody.

Ben Stiller: What's that? Who?

Andy: Nobody.

Ben Stiller: That's right. Nobody. Yeah. And who am I?

Andy: It's either Starsky or Hutch, I can never remember.

[Pause]

Ben Stiller: Was that supposed to be funny?

Andy: You tell me, you were in it.

Stiller: Get off my set. Go on, get off my set.

[Andy shrugs and turns to leave. Ben Stiller turns his back to Andy, then swings back again, not finished]

Ben Stiller: Hey, do you know how much Meet the Fockers made in its opening weekend?

Andy: No.

Ben Stiller: No, you don't do you? [Suddenly points to a random crew member] What do you think?

Random Crewmember: I dunno.

Ben Stiller: Take a wild guess.

Random Crewmember: Twenty million?

Ben Stiller: [Smugly, to Andy] Way off. Double it. Add six. Forty-six, three days. Seventy million, five days. Five hundred million worldwide. Number one movie in India, right now.

Andy: Sorry, the reason I'm here is, I want to know what your plan of action is. What's your strategy, what is your business plan?

Darren: Well, my plan is, when you get some work, then I can start making some money. 'Cause what I'm no good at, is, you know, breaking an act.

Andy: Oh! So, when I'm successful, you can deduct 12.5%, no problem.

Darren: 15 for adverts. That's what I'm hanging on for, really.

Andy: [incredulous] Yeah? You just want someone to call up and give me an advert?

Darren: That would be amazing. That would be brilliant.

Andy: Right, OK. Make sure the phone's on the hook, then.

Darren: You joke about it; it was unplugged for two days! No one noticed. Tsk!

Andy: Ah, and what do you recommend, my good man?

Caterer: Chicken's the warmest.

Andy: Is it? I'll have that then.

Caterer: One chicken.

[gives Andy his food]

Andy: Your heart isn't in this is it? Oh, but one of your pubes is, I notice!

[Caterer dives his fingers into mash]

Andy: Ooh, straight in there, no fuss.

Caterer: That's not a pube, it's a dog hair.

Andy: Oh, it's alright everyone! It's not a pube, it's just a dog hair, that's all. I thought it was a pube, but no. Oh, by the way, if you do happen to find any hairs in your food, he just goes straight in there with his sausage fingers.

Maggie: No, no, I have not. I don't know what to say to him, it's too embarrassing. What if I say, like, something and he just laughs at me, or something and he, and it's too much and he gets all offended.

Andy: Well, no, it's just all stuff like, "Ooh, I'm playing with myself."

Andy: Her boyfriend likes to talk dirty on the phone and she doesn't know what to say to him.

Kate Winslet: Oh, yeah, that can be a bit awkward. Well, why don't you just start off with something light, you know, like, um, "I'd love it if you stuck your Willy Wonka between my Oompa Loompas." You know, something a bit fun, a bit jokey. And then you can get more hardcore, rattle off the old classics, like, "I'm playing with my dirty pillows," "I'm aching for your big purple-headed womb-ferret," and then go straight in hard, like, "Get 'round here 'cause I'm fudding myself stupid and I'm bloody loving it." Right?

Maggie: Yeah.

Winslet: My God, I'm not doing it for that. I mean, I don't think we really need another film about the Holocaust, do we? It's like, how many have there been, you know? We get it. It was grim. Move on. No, I'm doing it because I've noticed that if you do a film about the Holocaust you're guaranteed an Oscar. I've been nominated four times. Never won. The whole world is going, "Why hasn't Winslet won one?"

Andy: Well, I'll be anyone you want me to be but you can call me Genie.

Les Dennis: How does someone as big as you squeeze into this tiny lamp?

Andy: Don't worry about it. I'm used to squeezing myself into tight holes! Ewwwwgh! No pain, no gain.

Les Dennis: You don't remember. Nobody remembers. That's why I'm in a shitty little panto, where the only people laughing were that bunch of gays.

Andy: Nothing wrong with gays.

Les Dennis: I know. But they'll laugh at anything. No victory in making a bunch of gays laugh, they laugh at anything. Look at that Graham Norton.

Andy: He's alright, i'n' he?

Les Dennis: Is he? Is this funny, is it? "Oooh! Look at this website about cocks and fannies. Oooh! Jackie Collins, what lovely tits. Do you like a cock up your arse? Oooh!" Is that funny?

Andy: It is quite funny when you do it, but keep it down a little bit, 'cause you're in a pub

Les Dennis: What is that? I want to do something more high-brow, Oscar Wilde or something.

Andy: Yeah, definitely, he was gay.

Les Dennis: I know. But not in the same way. He was clever. Would this have been funny? Him going through customs: "I have nothing to declare but my genius. Ooooh! And this vibratin' tongue for pleasurin' fannies. Oooh!" Is that funny?

Andy: Again quite funny when you do it. But it's Sunday, can you keep the "fannies" down to a minimum?

Maggie: He does! He's just seen me say to a black woman, "You're not allowed to sit on this bus." It's like that whole racism-on-a-bus incident all over again.

Andy: What, the Rosa Parks incident??

Maggie: It wasn't in a park, it was on a bus.

Andy: Sure.

Andy: Well, there is that test I can give you.

Maggie: What test?

Andy: The racism test they give you when you join the Council to make sure you're not a racist.

Maggie: I've never heard of it.

Andy: Yeah, do you want to do it? Just ten questions-- You've got to answer totally honestly, okay? Just relax, you've got nothing to worry about... unless you are a racist... Okay, question one: Who would rather see with their shirt off? Brad Pitt or Sir Trevor McDonald?

Andy: I can't say anything until the end. Right, question two. This is about racial awareness, cause often you catch out a real racist because they don't know or care about any black issues. Who is the prime minister of Great Britain?

Maggie: Tony Blair.

Andy: Correct. Who is the Prime Minister of Namibia?

Maggie: [stressed] I don't know...

Andy: Ooh, you knew the white one... Okay, um, oh dear... Who is the Queen of England?

Maggie: Queen Elizabeth II.

Andy: Correct. Who is the President of Djibouti?

Maggie: Oh, this is ridiculous! I've never even heard of blubbin' Djibouti!

Andy: Oh! Please do not ridicule the totally valid African language, please. Alright, next question. Who would you rather have waiting for you when you get home tonight: Johnny Depp or OJ Simpson?

Maggie: Johnny Depp, because of the murder thing.

Andy: Because of the murder thing? I think you'll find that OJ Simpson was acquitted, but in your eyes because he's black, he's still guilty.

Patrick Stewart: The character I am, Professor Charles Xavier, if you remember, can control things with the power of his mind; make people do things and see things. So I thought, what if you could do that for real? I mean, not in a comic book world, but in the real world.

Andy: Alright.

Patrick Stewart: So, in my film, I play a man who controls the world with his mind.

Andy: Right. That's interesting.

Patrick Stewart: For instance, I'm walking along, and I see this beautiful girl, and I think I'd like to see her naked, and so all her clothes fall off.

Andy: All her clothes fall off?

Patrick Stewart: Mmm. Yes. And she's scrabbling around to get them back on again, but even before she can get her knickers on, I've seen everything. I've seen it all.

Andy: Ok... So, comedy, is it?

Patrick Stewart: No. It's about what would happen if these things were possible.

Andy: What's the story though?

Patrick Stewart: Well, I do other stuff, like I'm riding my bike in the park, and this policewoman says, "Oi! You can't ride your bike on the grass." And I go, "Oh no?", and her uniform falls off, and she goes "Aaaah!", and she's trying to cover up, but I've seen everything anyway, and I get on my bike and ride off. On the grass.

Andy: So, it's mainly about seeing ladies' tits?

Patrick Stewart: Mainly. And I do other stuff. Like I go to the World Cup Final and it's Germany vs. England. And I wish I were playing and suddenly I am! And I score the winning goal. They carry me into the dressing room, and there's Rooney and Beckham and then Posh Spice walks in and --

Andy: Her clothes fall off?

Patrick Stewart: Instantly.

Andy: Sure.

Patrick Stewart: You're not married, you haven't got a girlfriend... and you've never watched Star Trek? Good Lord...

Andy: I think there are a some Jewish people, and some gay people, yeah.

Keith Chegwin:[sarcastically] 'Gay!' Yeah I forgot, not meant to say queer are you?Suggests something abnormal. What could be more normal than shoving your cock up a blokes arse? Now put it this way; If god had wanted a cock up an arse, he wouldn't have given us minges. Men have knobs. Women have fannies. Pop knob in fanny. Not up the arse.

Ian McKellen: Peter Jackson comes from New Zealand, says to me, "Sir Ian, I want you to be Gandalf the wizard." And I say to him, "You are aware that I am not really a wizard..." And he said, "Yes, I’m aware of that. What I want you to do is use your acting skills to portray the wizard for the duration of the film." So I said, "Okay." And then I said to myself, "Hmm, how do I do that?" And this is what I did: I imagined what it would be like to be a wizard, and then I pretended and acted in that way on the day... And how did I know what to say? The words were written down for me in a script. How did I know where to stand? People told me. If we were to draw a graph of my process, of my method, it would be something like this: Sir Ian, Sir Ian, Sir Ian. Action. WIZARD! "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" Cut! Sir Ian, Sir Ian, Sir Ian.

[Andy walks into Darren's office; Darren is sitting at his desk]

Andy: Moron

[Darren looks around]

Darren: You talking to me?

Andy: Yes, I'm talking to you! Didn't you read the play?

Darren: What play?

Andy: The play I'm in, the play that you got me a part in. It's a gay play. I've got to play a gay, with another gay. Acting all gay. All through the play... it's so gay.

Ross: I'm joined by Clive Owen and Greg Lindley-Jones, the two leads in the film...

Maggie: He's one of the leads!

Andy: In a terrible film.

Ross: ...I thought the film was brilliant...

Maggie: He thought it was brilliant!

Andy: Oh, I can hear!

Andy: I don't want to do camp, frothy nonsense. I want to do something classy!

Darren: Celebrity Big Brother have been on the phone.

Andy: You're not listening to me!

Darren: It's good money.

Andy: Not in a million years! What about films? What happened to films?

Darren: Okay, now this is interesting, we did have a call -- have you heard about this Byron film that everyone's raving about?

Andy: Yeah.

Darren: Right, well, they're making a sequel. Should be classy, should be good, it's about what it means to be a man, it's about honor, it's about integrity. They wanted you to go in and do an audition.

Andy: Right.

Darren: Obviously I said no, but I thought that was very positive --

Andy: What do you mean, you said no?

Darren: Well, they were asking for someone who's sort of thirty-six, handsome, dashing, and I presume they'd have to be taller than you, so I thought that --

Andy: Always do the audition!

Darren: But look at you, that's insane! I might as well send Barry! [Shaun/Barry laughs openly]

Andy: Call them back and say you've got the perfect person for the part.

Darren: Who?

Andy: Me!

Darren: No, it's really -- I don't want to waste their time.

Andy: Why am I trying to persuade my agent to get me an audition? It should be the other way round!

Darren: But if I send you, they'll think I don't know what I'm doing!

Andy: Ohhh, no one could ever think you don't know what you're doing, that you're a total waste of space and shouldn't even be in the industry.

Darren: Well, thanks, mate, but you'd be surprised. [Shaun nods]

George Michael: [approaching the "queer bench" where Andy is sitting with Bunny; throwing away a joint and a kebab wrapper] Hello, Bunny.

Bunny: Oh, hi, George.

George Michael: [sitting down] Any action? [looks at his watch]: Only got twenty minutes, actually, I'm on my lunch break.

Andy: Lunch break?

George Michael: Yeah, I'm doing community service.

Andy: Oh, are you still doing that?

George Michael: Oh, not that one, no, I'm doing another one now. I'm picking up litter now.

Andy: Oh, right. What'd you do wrong this time?

George Michael: Fly tipping, believe it or not. Yeah, I was helping Annie Lennox out with an old fridge-freezer, and she said, "Shall I call the council?" and I said, "No, don't bother with that, there's a skip at the end of my street." So at two-thirty in the morning, we're tipping it in there, and the fucking police show up.

Andy: How'd they get involved, then?

George Michael: Well, it was Stuart Copeland's skip, and he called Sting, and Sting called the fucking council, 'cause he's a fucking do-gooder. And now me and Annie are picking up litter. [getting up] Well, I'd better get going, 'cause I'm gonna have to get back to work soon...

Bunny: Come on, then, you. I'll give you a quickie.

George Michael: Oi, I'm not that desperate.

Bunny: Cheeky bastard!

George Michael: Actually, will you do me a favor and watch out for paparazzi? I'm going to go and try over there.

Bunny: Love to.

George Michael: Yeah? Cheers.

Bunny: Cheers. [to Andy, as Michael leaves] I've had him before, you know. In his car.

Andy: Wasn't that a bit cramped?

Bunny: Mm. And he was swerving all over the bloody road.

[after being denied entrance, Andy bursts into the Ivy, where his new agent is having lunch with Greg]

Andy: Trey!

Manager: Excuse me!

Trey: [beckons Andy over] What are you doing?

Andy: What are you doing? You haven't been returning my calls!

Trey: Yeah, well, funnily enough, there's not been much my end since you told the BBC to piss off.

Trey: Well, I can't magic things out of thin air. They either want you or they don't. Life's cruel. And to be honest with you, I've been up to my eyeballs with my other clients.

Greg: Guilty as charged.

Andy: Yeah... what about me?

Trey: All right, listen to me, Andy. I can't help you because I don't know what it is that you want. Every time you come into my office it's something different. One day it's all about not selling out, being an artist, next day you just want your face in the paper. What do you want? You want to be a world-famous movie star or do you want to be the tortured genius creating great art?

Greg: Look -- do you want fame and fortune, or do you want integrity and respect?

Andy: Both.

Trey: Right. Well, there are only a few people in the world who have both those things. And you will never be one of them. What do you want?

[long pause]

Andy: Rich and famous. And on the telly.

Trey: Right. Okay then. Will you do the stuff you keep turning down?

Andy: Yes.

Trey: Comedy panel shows?

Andy: Yup.

Greg: You know you'll have to make your carefully written jokes look ad-libbed.

Andy: Yes, I know how they work.

Greg: [to Trey] Emmerdale.

Trey: Oh, good, yeah. Well this is great! I'd much rather have a client who'll do anything to get on television than someone who goes, "Oh, I don't wanna do that" or "Oh, that's beneath me" -- oh, hold on. There is one other thing. Might have to pull some strings.

Andy: Pull 'em.

[cut to Andy entering the Big Brother house]

Amy: Andy, would you come to my Hello wedding?

Andy: To your Hello wedding?

Amy: Yeah. [when Andy doesn't answer] Are you all right?

Andy: No. [sighs] What are we doing? Selling ourselves, selling everything. "Happiest day of my life. Oh, quick, I'd better do the invites and bake a cake -- and get a press tent. Must have a press tent. It's a wedding." You know, "I must see pictures of myself with other people I'm in a program with. Oh, and now I'm pregnant! Maybe we should televise the birth, get Ruby Wax to present it. Maybe it'll make Jimmy Carr's Hundred Greatest Caesarians." [to Amy] I'm not having a go at you. I'm just sick of these celebrities, living their life out in the open all the time. Why would you do that? It's like these pop stars who choose the perfect moment to go into rehab. They call their publicist before they call a taxi! And then they come out and they do their second autobiography. "This one's called Love Me or I'll Kill Myself!" Oh, kill yourself then. [Maggie, watching at home lying on the couch, lifts her head up] And the papers lap it up. They follow us round, and that makes people think we're important, and that makes us think we're important. [Maggie sits up] If they stopped following us round taking pictures of us, people wouldn't take to the streets going, "Ooh, quick, I need a picture of Cameron Diaz with a pimple!" They wouldn't care, they'd get on with something else! They'd get on with their lives. You open the paper, and you see a picture of Lindsay Lohan getting out of a car, and the headline is, "Cover up, Lindsay, we can see your knickers!" Course you can see her knickers; your photographer is lying in the road, pointing his camera up her dress, to see her knickers! You're literally the gutter press. [loudly, into his microphone] And fuck you, the makers of this show, as well! You can't wash your hands of this, you can't keep going, "Oh, it's exploitation but it's what the public want!" No! [Maggie watches openmouthed] The Victorian freak show never went away. Now it's called Big Brother. Or The X Factor, where in the preliminary rounds, we wheel out the bewildered to be sniggered at by multi-millionaires. And fuck you for watching this at home. [Gestures to the cameras] Shame on you. And shame on me. I'm the worst of all, 'cause I'm one of these people that goes, "Oh, I'm an entertainer. It's in my blood." Yeah, it's in my blood 'cause a real job's too hard. I would've loved to've been a doctor; Too hard, didn't want to put the work in. Love to be a war hero; I'm too scared. [Maggie starts to cry] So I go, "It's what I do." And I have someone bollocked if my cappucino's cold, or if they look at me the wrong way. Do you know what a friend of mine once said? They said I'll never be happy 'cause I'll never be famous enough. And they were right. [Looks directly at the camera, talking to Maggie] And if you're watching this, I'm so sorry. You're my best friend. You're my only friend. [struggling not to cry] And you never did anything wrong. It was everything else. And I'll never do that again, I'll never treat you like that again. And it's eating at me -- you asked me a stupid question once, and I just- I could have answered it, and I didn't, 'cause I was -- I'll answer it now... I'd be the penguin. [Maggie laughs] 'Cause I could eat the flying fish. I know what you're thinking: why doesn't the fish fly away? Well, they can't really fly, they sort of glide and flap; they should be called "glidey flappy" fish. [Maggie laughs again] I'm so sorry.

Darren: [watching at the Carphone Warehouse, grins and wipes his eyes] I've been waiting to hear that, mate!